#(so Amaryllis i just got a letter at the end saying “from Amaryllis” LOL//) | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

summylise · 8 years ago

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The Greatest Sacrifice

A/N: Aaaaand here is chapter 4. I was working on this while editing and rewriting the last chapter so I apologize if some parts aren’t super clear or sound funky. Please let me know if this is the case or I have a continuity error!! ALSO: I know that nalu angst week is over but I'm going to keep posting the chapters even though I'm super behind lol

title: Nightmares, Scars, and the END

prompt: Sacrifice

chapter 1, chapter 2 , chapter 3, chapter 4

rating: T

pairings: nalu

words: 2935

summary: He had given in, and she was too late. There was nothing she could do besides beg and plead for him to come back to her. She knew it was in vain, that the words would never reach him. But there was still a sliver of her that hoped he was still in there. In the end, her kindness gave her scars that would never let her forget when her happiness had slipped through her fingers.

Lucy stared blankly at each grain of wood on the floor of the guildhall, eye glazed over. Fifty percent of her vision was non-existent, black, empty. The eye itself had swollen completely shut, but even if it hadn’t, the gauze wrapped tightly around it would have made it near impossible to see anyway. In fact, the white, blood-stained fabric had been tied around her neck and a part of her shoulder. Her leg had also been wrapped in the bandage, and her left arm was now resting in a makeshift sling, still too fragile after Wendy’s emergency care to move around freely.

She only remembered bits and pieces of the ordeal: her bruised guild members pulling her from the rubble, being rushed to the guild hall, waking up a few hours late to find her wounds covered and healing. Wendy had been completely drained of magic power; she had been sleeping in the guild’s recovery room for almost three days now because of it. Her lack of magic had meant that she couldn’t fully heal the gashes on Lucy’s face and could barely heal her broken arm.

When it was all said and done, Lucy was the worst off compared to the rest of the guild. Most made it out with a few bruises and burns, but there were some whose wounds had required immediate care. Laxus had been one of the unlucky few with broken bones, one arm almost shattered from stopping a piece of concrete from crushing a little girl and his kneecap fractured from landing too hard on the ground. Wendy, who had already lost a good portion of her magic power from the hangover curing that morning, was sent to those patients first. The others were left to have their wounds tended to by Porlyusica, who grumbled as she wrapped gauze around cuts and rubbed potions around bruises.

The old woman had grimaced when she finally made her way to Lucy. She had lifted the dirty, blood-stained wraps on Lucy’s face and audibly hissed. She had done all she could, used all potions and mixes that could help and had concluded that the wounds would never properly heal, even if Wendy had a go at them. That they would leave permanent scars. She had mentioned something about demon’s claws, but Lucy had stopped listening; the ringing in her ears was too loud. Not only would she always remember that terrible feeling, not only of helplessness but also of the excruciating pain, but she would also forever wear the scars as a constant reminder.

The guild buzzed around her, papers and maps collected from the last few days strewn about in every direction. Every wizard, ignoring their wounds, poured over notes and letters as they followed the demon-Natsu-across Fiore, tracking his every movement. Macao and Wakaba were going at it, both claiming that each other’s sources were invalid, only meant to throw off the trail. Levy adorned her reading glasses and had every book imaginable on demons, attacks, possession, anything she could get her hands on that could help her further understand the situation.

There were only four individuals that were crumpled off to the side, staring at nothing in particular, too lost in thought to pay anyone else any mind: Gray, Erza, Happy, and herself. Happy, however, had long since curled up on Lucy’s lap and cried himself to sleep. Lucy would have been right there with him had she not been so in shock, so utterly numb. She wished that she was sad, or angry or scared or worried or anything. Anything that wasn’t nothing at all.

It was as though she was having a sort of out of body experience. She could still see everything her eyes were seeing, but it was as though a wall had come between her and her body. It felt as though she was a puppet, and something else was controlling her, but her consciousness was trapped inside, banging on an invisible wall trying to regain control.

She didn’t even feel the sting and throb of her wounds anymore. It was like her entire body sank in a tub of ice cold water.

Erza and Gray were a different story. Erza sat at a nearby table; her head bowed facing the floor, her arms crossed over her knees. Bruises had emerged along her jaw and collarbone from where Natsu had likely landed a few good hits. A long, thick layer of gauze was bound around her head and chest.She hadn’t moved, hadn’t said anything while they had been sitting there. And that had been almost five hours now. Gray had yet to take off one scrap of clothing save for his necklace. He twirled it between his fingers, stroking the sword’s rough edges. His lips were set in a hard, thin line, his eyes never leaving his pendant. He too sported a handful of bruises though he had been given a lot more than a few scrapes and broken ribs. His arm hung in a sling similar to Lucy’s though his arm and hand had yet to heal. He propped his splinted leg out in front of him from his unmoving position on the floor, his crutches lying haphazardly at his side. Any movement, whether it be a twitch, a readjustment, or a bump, made Gray hiss and grimace.

Every so often, someone would race past them and completely forget that the group was there only to remember when one of their legs would catch on Gray’s foot or a loose paper would land beside Erza’s after spilling from their hands. None of them would move. No one would react. The person would mutter a hasty apology, if they said anything at all, and raced to where they were heading.

“This says Natsu’s made his way to Hargeon already. Luckily they evacuated in time. Would’ve been a disaster if they hadn’t,” said one member. Macao.

“Stop saying that. That thing isn’t Natsu anymore,” countered another. Wakaba?

Lucy blinked. That wasn’t true. She refused to believe it. She finally lifted her head to stare at the pair. Macao nodded in response to Wakaba’s comment, his jaw clenching, and Adam’s apple bobbing.

“Right.”

Cana stood from her seat next to Macao, the large barrel that usually accompanied her surprisingly absent and nowhere to be seen. Her face too had taken on a striking hardness; her eyes narrowed, shoulders tensed. She had never seen her friend so ferocious, her features reminding her more of Erza than her usually laid back, alcohol drinking self.

“We can’t just sit here doing nothing. We have to do something about this. We have to stop it,” Cana stated, eyes flashing.

The guild quieted, eyes darting to Cana as she moved to stand in front of the large map of Fiore in the center of the room. Erza lifted her head to watch Cana move, the gears in her head turning. Gray froze stroking his pendant. Makarov sat atop a nearby table, staring down at the map, deep in thought. Without looking at the girl, he opened his mouth.

“What did you have in mind?” he retorted with a hollowness in his voice.

Wizards began to filter in behind Cana as she stood staring, a finger on her chin, as she glanced at the map and the papers in her hands.

The map itself was already covered with various reports of sightings and pictures of burning chaos, thumbtacks pinpointing the location of each attack. A red string connected the tacks by order of occurrence. Cana got down on her knees and pressed a finger to the edge of the red line, tracing along its length. She swore under her breath.

“He’s heading straight for the capital.”

The room gasped. Lucy’s eyes widened, feeling herself start to fall back into her body.

“But why would he do that?”

“It. That thing isn’t Natsu.”

“But why the capital? What’s over there that he-it-wants?”

“To destroy. To attack as many people as possible,” Cana interrupted. “That’s all those demons want.”

Lucy felt her blood come back to life, bubbling and churning in her stomach. The mention of the beast broke her from her disassociation.

“Once, it gets to Crocus, there’s no telling how bad it’ll get. It might even be worse than the situation with the Eclipse gate.”

Cana turned back to the map, tracing over several smaller dots between the edge of the string and the capital. The guild members around her murmured nervously, frightened concerns passing between them. Levy remained in the corner, watching the confrontation intently but staying back. She passed silent words with Gajeel, both wearing grave expressions as they assessed the situation. Lucy’s heart picked up as she watched the faces around Cana darken and narrowed in on the town she was tapping.

“There. That one. Amaryllis. It’s small enough that there won’t be a lot of people but big enough that it’ll want to attack that one next,” Cana stated. “It’ll likely have enough buildings in the center of town where we can ambush it.”

The guild erupted into a chorus of shouts and hoots of agreement. Makarov continued to stare down at the map, still deep in thought. He didn’t react to a word Cana said; he didn’t even acknowledge her. Cana picked a card from her deck and threw it to the small point on the map, the corner piercing its black center. Lucy’s heart dropped. Did that mean they…

“Wh-what are you going to do once you find him?” Lucy said, her voice cracking after not being used for a few days.

The crowd quieted, turning to face her. Cana locked eyes with Lucy, staring her down. Challenging her, but also holding a hint of softness in her expression.

“What’d you say?” Cana asked, without any trace of malice she had a few moments before.

Lucy carefully lifted Happy from her lap and placed him on the floor next to her, unsure of what she would do in the next few minutes. She cleared her throat then tried again. “What’re you going to do when you find him? What then?” She kept her voice steady, trying to suppress the fear and anger that started coursing through her veins. She knew exactly what they wanted to do to him; she just wanted to hear them say it.

Cana blinked. She paused a moment, just staring back at Lucy. Then she sighed, her fingers massaging the bridge of her nose.

“Look, Lucy…”

“No, you can’t do that!” Lucy cried, leaping to her feet. She started towards the group. “Natsu’s still in there! You can’t just k-kill him.”

Erza flew from her chair, kicking it back behind her. Gray glanced up from his position on the floor, his fingers freezing on his pendant. The guild hall tensed. No one said a word. Everyone froze like statues in a wax museum. Cana took a calming breath and closed her eyes. Jet narrowed his eyes and opened his mouth to argue her, but Cana shot out an arm, cutting him off.

“Lucy, you have to understand. That thing isn’t Natsu,” Cana stated, clearly and calmly, a hint of impatience in her tone.

Lucy clenched her free fist, her teeth grinding against each other.

“No, you need to understand. Do you know how many times Natsu has saved you? Has saved all of us?” she questioned, her voice rising. “But the second he needs us to save him, you all resort to the just killing him? How could you people do that?”

She shifted her gaze to the crowd around the brunette. Some mages turned to one another, doubt rising in their expressions. Jet’s eyes softened, his shoulders slacken. Cana just kept staring her down, her muscles slowly flexing. Her nostrils flared and her lips pressed into a tight, thin line.

“Did you try and kill Laxus when he made us attack each other? Or Freed? Evergreen or Bickslow? No. You just gave them a slap on the wrist and left it at that.”

“Lucy…” Cana warned, her voice sharpening.

“He’s just having a hard time with this enemy. And he needs us to help him. If we could just talk to him, to try and reason with him then maybe…”

“We’ve already tried, Lucy,” Mira said from the bar. “And he wasn’t listening, and you were almost killed-”

“I saw him in there! He stopped the demon from killing me!” Lucy cried, stepping on the edge of the map. “Natsu would never hurt his friends..”

“Lucy!” Cana screamed. Lucy’s blood ran cold. Cana glared down at her, her clenched fists shaking at her sides. Her chest heaved, her face reddened.

“Look in the mirror! You almost had your damn face ripped off! And it was so close to killing you. If it had choked you a moment longer, you would have died in the middle of town.”

The guild hall was silent, only being cut by Cana’s heavy breathing. Lucy’s eyes widened. She couldn’t think of how to respond, how to retort. She gulped, massaging the bruises blossoming on her throat. Each guild member slowly turned to face Cana whose body had begun to tremble. Her fists slackened. She squeezed her eyes shut and turned her face to the floor.

“If I had been a second late,” she said, her voice cracking. “That thing would have killed you. And I would have lost another friend that day.”

A stray tear dropped onto the map, and Cana had to grit her teeth to keep from breaking down right there in the middle of the guild hall.

“That’s why we have to stop him. I can’t lose another friend, and I can’t let anyone else go through something like that.”

Lucy bit her lip, hesitant. She wanted to argue more; she knew that she wasn’t wrong, that she wasn’t crazy. That she had seen Natsu in there. But she couldn’t just stand to see Cana so torn apart by it. Her voice softened.

“What if he’s not lost? What if-”

A cold hand closed over her shoulder. Lucy turned to see Gray, still staring at the floorboards, his eyes glazed over. He blinked and turned his gaze to her. She saw how hard this was for him, the way his jaw clenched, the intense pressure of his grip on her shoulder, the way his sharp eyes stared at nothing in particular.

“Lucy, you saw the way he acted. You saw how he attacked us, how he attacked you,” he murmured. “You said it yourself: Natsu would never hurt his friends.”

Lucy’s heart twisted, her words stopping in her throat. Tears pricked her eyes. She bit her lip to keep it in.

“And I know for a fact that he’d never hurt an innocent. What do you think his reaction would be if he found out what he had done?” Erza added, stepping up behind her and placing her uninjured hand on Lucy’s other shoulder.

Lucy glanced at the wizard and actually looked at her. Her brown eyes strained, red from lack of sleep and accentuated by dark, purple bruises. The red of her hair looked flat, lacking its usual vibrancy and life. Her voice was hoarse. Her throat bobbed. Lucy had never seen the mage this troubled, this distressed. That’s what struck one last chord.

“I’ve known Natsu for years,” she continued, turning to Lucy, “and I know that he would rather die than be the cause of the death of an innocent, let alone his fellow guild member. Let alone you.”

Lucy’s stomach knotted, twisting over and over again like taffy being pulled. Her heart clenched tightly. She squeezed her eyes shut and bit her lip. Her breath hitched. There were too many people. Too many watching. The tears were coming, and she wouldn’t be able to stop them.

“M-Master,” she choked, her last strand of hope riding on whatever he might say. She clenched her fists, forcing back the unwanted tears. “Master, please don’t let them go through with this.”

The crowd slowly turned to face the small, unmoving man who continued to glare at the map. His jaw clicked. A grumble resonated from deep within him as he contemplated his options. He slowly closed his eyes and clenched the fingers around his staff. The guild seemed to hold its breath. Lucy froze, realizing that anticipation itself was more excruciating than the answer she could already hear him giving her.

He carefully released a breath and opened his eyes.

“For the sake of all Fiore and the safety of all my children, we must move on with Cana’s plan, no matter the cost.”

Her chest heaved, air refusing to stay in her lungs longer than a few seconds. Her blood ran cold.

Next thing she knew, she was pushing the large, wooden doors closed and sliding down its base. She pressed a hand to her mouth and clamped her eyes shut. Silent tears streamed down her face, soaking into the white gauze blanketing the right side of her body. She curled herself into a ball against the door, tensing her muscles as tight as possible, terrified that the instant she let go, she would fall apart.

They were right. They were all right. She knew they were right, but that didn’t mean that it was ok. It was what he would have wanted. It was what was good for her guild. Good for the people of Fiore.

She just wished that she didn’t have to sacrifice her own happiness to save that of everyone else.

#nalu #angst #nalu angst week #nalu-angst-week #summer writes

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